12.1-23-11. Unauthorized use of personal identifying information — Penalty
1. As used in this section, “personal identifying information” means any of the following information:
a. An individual’s name;
b. An individual’s address;
c. An individual’s telephone number;
d. The operator’s license information assigned to an individual by the department of transportation under section 39-06-14;
e. An individual’s social security number;
f. An individual’s employer or place of employment;
g. An identification number assigned to the individual by the individual’s employer;
h. The maiden name of the individual’s mother;
i. An individual’s financial institution account number, credit card number, or debit card number;
j. An individual’s birth, death, or marriage certificate;
k. An individual’s health insurance policy number or subscriber identification number or any unique identifier used by a health insurer to identify the individual;
l. The nondriver color photo identification card information assigned to the individual by the department of transportation under section 39-06-03.1;
m. An individual’s digitized or other electronic signature;
n. An individual’s photograph or computerized image;
o. An individual’s electronic mail address;
p. An individual’s username and password of any digital service or computer system;
q. An individual’s payment card information;
r. An individual’s biometric data; or
s. Any other numbers, documents, or information that can be used to access another person’s financial records.
2. An individual is guilty of an offense if the individual obtains or attempts to obtain, transfers, records, or uses or attempts to use any personal identifying information of another individual, living or deceased, to obtain credit, money, goods, services, or anything else of value without the authorization or consent of the other individual. The offense is a class B felony if the credit, money, goods, services, or anything else of value exceeds one thousand dollars in value, otherwise the offense is a class C felony. A second or subsequent offense is a class A felony.
3. A person is guilty of an offense if the person uses or attempts to use any personal identifying information of an individual, living or deceased, without the authorization or consent of the individual, in order to interfere with or initiate a contract or service for a person other than that individual, to obtain or continue employment, to gain access to personal identifying information of another individual, or to commit an offense in violation of the laws of this state, regardless of whether there is any actual economic loss to the individual. A first offense under this subsection is a class A misdemeanor. A second or subsequent offense under this subsection is a class C felony.
4. A violation of this section, of a law of another state, or of federal law that is equivalent to this section and which resulted in a plea or finding of guilt must be considered a prior offense. The prior offense must be alleged in the complaint, information, or indictment. The plea or finding of guilt for the prior offense must have occurred before the date of the commission of the offense or offenses charged in the complaint, information, or indictment.
5. A prosecution for a violation of this section must be commenced within six years after discovery by the victim of the offense of the facts constituting the violation.
6. When a person commits violations of this section in more than one county involving either one or more victims or the commission of acts constituting an element of the offense, the multiple offenses may be consolidated for commencement of prosecution in any county where one of the offenses was committed.